414 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



We have every year a sign up going on all over in the United States. 

 It is going on in my township today. There they sit down with their 

 local committee. They fill out a work sheet and they tell their county 

 committee what their intentions are. 



Now, then, if there is a goal that should be raised, if they need 

 more wheat or if they need more beef or more of some other thing they 

 will tell this farmer, "This is what we need. Could you help shift your 

 production this coming year to bring that about?" 



Some farmers are in a position to do it. They voluntarily say, "Yes, 

 I can put in 25 acres more of this and I will put in 16 acres less of 

 this." That is how it is done. That way you get a voluntary shift. If 

 that helps meet the answer, well and good. If it does not, then you 

 probably have to see somebody again to see if he can make still further 

 shifts. After this is agreed on, the people have agreed on so much 

 production, then maybe the good Lord enters in and he gives yoU a 

 superabundant crop, a bumper crop, we will say, of wheat or cotton 

 or any of these other things, greater than what your goal is. 



That is where our proposal for a strong, ever-normal granary 

 comes in. 



We want to put that into the granary and not be alarmed by a 

 300,000,000-bushel surplus. 



We want to have a full year in there before we get excited about it. 

 In that connection, I would like to call this to your attention. So far, 

 they tell me that the biggest surplus of wheat that this country ever 

 had was only 600,000,000 bushels, which is only about half of our last 

 year's production. 



You could have two or three big bumper years before you would 

 ever get a surplus that should really worry you. The only thing is we 

 will have to have a good, strong checkbook to back that up. That will 

 not be any different than what we have always had farmers in every 

 community doing. In my township we have had three or four farmers 

 that have always practiced that. 



They never worry if they get a big crop and the market does not suit 

 them. 



They just put it in that granary and leave it there until there is a 

 demand for it. 



Mr. Pace. Mr. Wyum, in this volunary shift that you mention, of 

 course, when you ask one of your farmers to shift out of one crop into 

 aonther you usually give him an assurance that he will make as much 

 out of the one as he made out of the other. I just wanted to mention 

 in passing that that is one of the wrinkles that must be ironed out in 

 Mr. Talbott's plan because there is no assurance in the Secretary's pro- 

 gram that there is going to be this equality of return on commodities 

 in comparison with prices paid. 



The Secretary's program abandons the comparable j^urchasing 

 power in the things the farmers buy. 



The prices of commodities are going to be worked out on what those 

 commodities each brought in the past 10 years. It might be that if 

 Mr. Talbott expresses his willingness to come out of wheat and go into 

 eggs or hogs or something else, when he looks at the support level 

 worked out under the Secretary's formula he will find it is not worked 

 out with the language of the Steagall amendment that the parity 

 should be fixed on a comparable basis. 



